


Nightly Shadows: Non-verbal communication

by Flexor



Series: Nightly Shadows [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Intimate Partner Violence, Past Abuse, Spoilers: V4 Ep 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-13 23:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9145933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flexor/pseuds/Flexor
Summary: A single slap in the face, in the heat of the moment, when you're all pumped up for the fight. That's nothing. But what if it happens too often? There may be something more sinister lurking under the surface. Something that needs to be dealt with. Sun is not the Monkey Faunus to do it though. That's the job of a father.





	1. Something you should know.

**Author's Note:**

> This story came to me after watching S4 Ep8: A much needed talk, and reading a few comments. People seem to be a bit worried about Blake slapping Sun around all the time. If this were just done for comedic effect, it would indeed be a bit worrisome, but I think RT are going somewhere with this. This story offers one possible explanation.

Ghira Belladonna sat at his desk. The responsibilities of a chieftain were many and varied, and not a small part of that was figuring out which parts he needed to take care of himself, and which parts he could just tell someone to get lost and get on with. And then, there were the jobs he found for himself, like his daughter. He tried not to show it, but he worried about her. She was troubled by things that were heavier than a seventeen year old girl... well, a seventeen year old young woman could be expected to carry. But she had definitely got some of her stubborn pride from him, and getting her to explain what the matter was, would not be easy. That, and the nasty part of the White Fang seemed to be after her, for reasons unknown. Did all parents get this?

There was a knock on the thin screen door.

"Who's there?"

Ghira could hear by the awkward silence who it was. That boy.

"It's me, Sir. Sun."

"I'm busy."

"It's... It's important Sir. It's about your... It's Blake."

Oh _Bastet_ , why? Blake was already showing that boy too much skin for his liking. What did he want, his blessing? Ghira heaved a deep sigh.

"Come on in," he said. After a moment, he added, "It slides to the side."

"Yessir."

The door opened, and Sun came in, looking at the door frame nervously. Yes, it's fine kid. I hung it back up. Nothing damaged.

"Mister Wukong. How can I help you out?"

The boy stood in front of his desk, clearly shaking in his boots. Good. Anyone who wanted to help his only daughter out of what little clothes she was wearing, _needed_ to be afraid of him. Ghira could see the coils in his head tighening up, until he finally looked up at him.

"I've got a serious question for you, Mr. Belladonna."

"That'd be a first. Out with it, boy."

"When Blake was young. Did you ever..." He breathed in, seemed to coil up for a sprint out of there. "Hit her?"

Ghira Belladonna, Chieftain of Menagerie, sat completely still with his mouth hanging open. How _dare_ he? How _dare_ that miserable little monkey... Ghira looked into Sun's eyes. Sun Wukong looked back at him, clearly scared out of his wits, but determined. Ghira closed his eyes. He got up from his desk, walked round it, away from Sun. Nobody does non-verbal communication like a cat Faunus. By simply walking to the sofa, he told Sun that he was in hot water, but that he would hear him out.

"Sit down, Boy."

Sun sat down, well out of arm's reach. Ghira looked at him, then bowed his head.

"It was five years ago. I was leader of the White Fang then, but the White Fang was not what it is today. I like to think that it was a force for good. We didn't exactly _like_ the Humans, but most of us recognised that we had to live with them somehow."

"Some of them are cool," said Sun, thinking of his friends at Mistral and Beacon.

"Some of them, yes. But not all of us thought that way. It was at a Gathering. I wanted to negotiate. Others just wanted to teach those Humans a lesson, show that we have _claws_. Talking became shouting. Shouting became standing up and glaring. And then, I declared the meeting over. Blake was there. She was always there. Couldn't leave her alone, didn't trust anyone enough to look after her. So I told her we were going home."

"And she wasn't coming, right?"

"You know my daughter. Too well, I can't help thinking."

"Uhh..." Sun's mind was drawn back to the Night After The Fight Before. It was a good memory, the _best_ memory. But not the one to have while sitting next to Blake's dad, who could crush his head in one of his hands.

"Blake screamed at us. Called us traitors. Cowards. And yes, she said she wasn't coming. And then I said that she was. And then she said, make me. And I..."

Ghira looked at Sun closely. He said nothing. Smart kid.

"I told her I was sorry afterwards. I never touched her before or since."

"Once in a lifetime," said Sun, looking away. "I didn't think you would, but..."

"You raise kids of your own, then come and judge me. And the way things are looking now, you're not doing it with Blake."

"Sorry Sir, that's not what I meant." Sun looked up. "You're not the sort to beat children into obeying. You're too big for that. But I had to ask. And you'd break my neck for even mentioning Blake's mum."

"Why _did_ you ask?"

"It's getting worse, Sir." Sun looked up at Ghira. "Back on the ship, Blake slapped me in the face once. For following her."

"Maybe you deserved that."

Sun shrugged. "Maybe I did. But after I, uh, fell into your conversation with Blake, and I'm sorry Sir, I shouldn't have..."

"Get to the point," said Ghira.

"She was mad at me, Sir. She kept hitting me. That isn't normal. She can shout at me all she likes, but does she have to hit me? And then after we chased off that spy, she did it again. And it looked like she didn't even realise she was doing it. So I thought..."

"You thought that as a child, I would often beat her, and by doing so taught her that behaviour."

Sun swallowed. "Yes Sir. Glad to see you didn't. But someone did. Someone taught her that it's okay to get hands-on when you're mad."

"Hmmm..."

"Sir, I like Blake. I really like her."

"She's my daughter. I like her, too. I like her enough to get feral about people who don't give her due respect."

"I followed her over thousands of miles, just to make sure that she was all right. That ought to tell you something."

"The things you'll do to..." Ghira gave a fatherly grunt.

Sun sneered. "What I do to get girls into _bed_ , Mr. Belladonna, is show up and ask them. Nine times out of ten, they say yes."

"And number ten is Blake."

_No, number ten only wanted girls._ Sun's self preservation instincts kicked in and strangled the words before he could say them.

"Uh... Yeah. But it isn't me you need to worry about, Sir. I wouldn't hurt Blake for the world. But someone else did, I'm sure."

"Hmmm... Any idea who?"

"I think I do, Sir. Blake used to be with Adam Taurus, didn't she?"

"What, Adam _Taurus_?!"

"Uh, yeah. I thought you'd know. And let me tell you, he's a _really_ nasty character. He's the one that cut Yang's arm off. He's the one who stabbed Blake in the stomach. Scar's under her belt."

Ghira looked at Sun, slowly running his fingers through his beard. How the boy knew about scars hidden by the already too revealing outfit, was something for later. There were more important things to worry about.

"I just thought you'd want to know, Sir," said Sun. "Something bad happened to her, after you left the White Fang, and before she did. I can't fix it for her, but maybe you can. I just want her to be okay."

"So do I." Ghira's face remained still, but his eyes gleamed. "I _really_ don't like you, Mister Sun Wukong." He reached out and put a coal shovel of a hand on Sun's shoulder. "But thank you for telling me this."

Sun nodded, got up. "Please Mr. Belladonna, talk to her. She's not really hurt me, I've been hit a lot harder than that, but... it hurts."

He turned round, carefully opened the door and left, leaving Ghira to sit and think. 

 

Adam Taurus.

The more Ghira learnt about him, the less he liked him. Not that he'd liked him much to begin with. If he read the situation right, Taurus had raised his hand against Blake, and so often that Blake herself thought it was _normal_. That it was simply a way to emphasise your words. That put him firmly on the list of people to beat into a bloody pulp. The fact that Ghira was now having to check his daughter for stab wounds, put him firmly at the top of that list.

But first things first.

Ghira got up and walked to Blake's bedroom. 


	2. Mosaic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghira has a little talk with Blake about her habit of smacking Sun in the face when he richly deserves it.

Ghira Belladonna could walk very quietly if he wanted to. He made no sound at all on the stone floor as he walked up to Blake's bedroom. They hadn't changed anything when she left for Beacon. The Manor had bedrooms enough. Some of them were far away from Blake's. He gently opened the sliding door and looked in, like when she was a little girl, just to watch her sleep. Blake was lying on the bed, in her old comfortable black yukata, back turned on the world. Her ears twitched.

"Hi Dad."

Ghira opened the door, walked in. "How are you?"

"Didn't get hit. I'm fine." Blake sat up, looking up at her father.

"Budge up," said Ghira. Blake hopped to the side, and Ghira sat down next to her, making the bed creak under his weight.

"Just had a talk with Sun," said Ghira.

"He's fine too. Perfectly fine. I can't _believe_ I fell for that old 'one last kiss before I die' thing."

"You didn't _just_ kiss him, did you?"

Blake looked up into her father's eyes. "On the boat you mean? Did he tell you about _that_?" Her teeth bared. "I'm going to _strangle_ him."

Ghira blinked. My my. The things people tell you without meaning to. But never mind that now. Bigger fish.

"You may want to try just talking to him, Sweetheart. And keep your hands to yourself. He may be a conceited, inconsiderate, disrespectful, annoying little twerp, but he's not the enemy."

Blake stared. "That's what he came to talk to you about? _Hey Blake's dad? Blake is hitting me?_ He deserved everything he got."

"He came to me because he worries about you," said Ghira. "You haven't got round to telling me all of your adventures, but getting stabbed by the leader of the Vale chapter of the White Fang? I'd have put that a little bit higher on the list."

"Adam."

"Yes."

"I don't want to talk about him."

Ghira waited.

"He wasn't really trying to kill me."

Ghira said nothing. Loudly.

"He was trying to draw Yang out to attack him. And she _did_ , stupid..." Blake swallowed her tears. "He was going to kill her. He's going to destroy everything I love, that's what he said."

"Luckily you hate us," said Ghira. "So we are safe."

Blake stared at him, eyes wide, face turning pale. "He's going to come after you! Mum!"

Ghira put his arm round Blake's slender shoulders, pulled her to him. "I can take care of the likes of him."

"I hate him," said Blake.

"Why?"

" _Why?_ "

"Yes. Why."

"He brought Grimm into my school! He killed innocent people! He stabbed me! He _cut Yang's arm off, and the way she is now, she's better off dead!_ Why do you _think_ I hate him?"

"You've had other enemies. Some of them had just as much blood on their hands. We ourselves have blood on our hands. What makes him special?"

"I..." Blake's fists shook in her lap. "I loved him. I thought he was all the best that Faunus had to show. I gave him everything that was me. Whatever he thought was good, I also thought was good." Blake leaned into her father. "I want to be a good person, but because I listened to him, believed him, didn't question before it was too late, I'm... not. He dragged me, no I _let_ myself be dragged down with him. I failed."

Ghira held Blake in his arms, her shoulders twitching as she cried.

"We all start out thinking that there's good people, and they only do good things, and bad people only do bad things. You are a bad person _and_ a good person. We all are."

"Adam Taurus is a bad person."

"Do you think he wakes up in the morning wondering what evil he is going to do today? In his mind, he is the hero, who will save the future of all Faunus by destroying the Human oppressor."

Blake's voice lowered to a whisper. "I never wanted to destroy all the Humans. But he did, and I didn't see it. I thought he was good."

"Even when he slapped you in the face when you stepped out of line?"

Blake's eyes snapped round to her father. "How do you know that? I never told..."

"A guess," said Ghira. "But not a very hard one. Even Sun guessed it. Though he suspected me first. Little twerp."

Blake sat up, hands in front of her mouth, shaking. "Oh no. Oh _no_. Dad, I was doing to him what Adam did to me!" She hung her head. "He must really hate me now."

"Boy's head over heels in love with you. You can still laugh it off, it's not too late. You didn't realise what you were doing." He reached out, turned Blake's face towards him. "But now, you do."

"You said you don't like him."

Ghira chuckled. "I don't. But your taste in men is improving. Mind you, the one before was a homicidal maniac, and he is a delinquent. There's still room for more improvement."

"I've got to apologise to him. Make it up to him somehow."

Ghira shrugged. "I'd say just leave it. Silence is golden. He'll know how you feel. Any other plans, please don't tell me."

" _Dad!_ " Blake started to say something indignant, but then she saw the look in her father's eyes. She settled for a simple "Okay."

Ghira pulled Blake close and hugged her. "I love you, Sweetheart, and I'm proud of you."

_For what?_ Blake didn't say it. "I'm going to talk to Sun." Blake got up, smiled at her father, and walked out. 

 

Ghira leaned back against the wall. To a child, everything is so wonderfully simple. That's the thing about growing up. Things turn out to be a mosaic of black, white, and every shade in between. The important thing is knowing which is which. Sometimes, you get even that wrong. Still. It would have been so easy for Blake to blame everything on Adam Taurus, but she didn't. She blamed herself for letting him corrupt her. Which meant that she realised her responsibility, and took it. Ghira smiled. Blake was going to need a little, maybe a lot more advice, and he couldn't leave that all to Kali. But her nose was pointing in the right direction. He was allowed to feel some pride in that, wasn't he?

Blake was going to be just fine.

He got up, walked out of her room, closed the door and went to find Kali. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right then, Rooster Teeth. I am now counting on you (a) Not having Sun killed off with one stroke of this Ilya character, and (b) Sun responding to having a hot girl fussing over him by letting her. And pushing his luck.
> 
> The (b) part I can gloss over as happening when the cameras were off, but (a) would be a bit pobmatic. So play nice, OK?


End file.
